‘Austrian Death Machine maakt loze beloftes’
Afgelopen week is het nieuwe album Triple Brutal van Austrian Death Machine, de band van ex-As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis, verschenen via Artery Records. De band beloofde enkele weken geleden dat een deel van de opbrengsten, Lambesis’ royalties om precies te zijn, naar het goede doel World Vision zou gaan. World Vision heeft daarop echter laten weten dat zij nooit contact hebben gehad met de band en ook nog geen geldbedrag ontvangen hebben. Hieronder kun je lezen wat Sheryl Watkins, een medewerker van World Vision, aan Noisy vertelde.
“[W]ith artists and other celebrities we require thorough vetting before entering into partnerships,” Sheryl Watkins, World Vision’s senior communications officer, tells Noisey in an email. Lambesis can still make donations to the organization under the radar, Watkins says, but she adds that, as of the album’s release, neither Lambesis nor the band had established an account with World Vision or any formal relationship with the charity.
“Unfortunately, in this case neither Mr. Lambesis or the band approached World Vision before stating that proceeds of the record would benefit us,” she says. “Regrettably, we’ve found over the years that individuals and businesses will make that claim, and not follow through. Our legal department is currently looking at the band’s website to determine our next steps.”
Artery Recordings heeft inmiddels een statement naar buiten gebracht namens de band. Hieronder kun je een fragment lezen.
“Also to address the matters of Tim’s royalties going to charity. The World Vision charity is the charity Tim chose for the money to go to. Seeing that is it only 5 days after the release of the album i haven’t received any money from sales yet. When we do statements the charity will be receiving a check in the mail from the team and everything will be done as we said it would. Why would i contact a charity before we had money to give them?
“People also ask why we got involved with licensing the record. Tim has been a friend for a long time. The opportunity to help release this record and get people their campaign packages was something i wanted to do. Tim stated he wanted to give his money from the sales of the record to charity and i see that being a very awesome thing. This is why I got involved.